Google Buys Security Analytics Software Developer Zynamics

It looks like Google has made an acquisition today: security analytics software company Zynamics.

Here’s the post on Zynamic’s blog: We’re pleased to announce that zynamics has been acquired by Google! If you’re an existing customer and do not receive our email announcement within the next 48 hours, please contact us at info@zynamics.com. All press inquiries should be sent to press@google.com.

Zynamics builds reverse engineering tools (BinDiff, BinNavi, VxClass, BinCrowd and PDF Dissector) for both offensive and defensive security that help find and prevent security vulnerabilities and issues within software applications. The startup’s tools are used to help understand security updates, identify FOSS code in binaries and identify flaws in closed-source software and build input to trigger them. The company’s software will also cluster malicious software and generate signatures as well as share information remotely.

Specifically, VxClass provides an infrastructure for processing new malicious software. BinDiff allows users to analyze malware variants, investigate code theft, and identify changes between program versions. BinNavi enables users to visualize code coverage and program structure, identify security-critical features, understand large and complicated systems more efficiently, and find security defects. BinCrowd allows for malware analysis with a team environment.

It’s unclear how Google will be integrating Zynamics software into its own product lineup, but we’ve contacted Google for confirmation.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Google has confirmed the acquisition with this statement: We’re delighted to have the zynamics team aboard and hope their tools and skills in fighting malware will help us better protect Google’s users…The zynamics team will continue to develop innovative ways of applying their software analysis tools to protect users from malicious software. Their goals overlap with the commitment that Google has already made to ensure online security for our users.